Durham singer’s debt to his superstar pal Ed
Friendship leads to invite to play stadium concerts
Durham folk-rock singer-songwriter Antonio Lulic with Ed Sheeran DURHAM singer Antonio Lulic has found the ‘perfect’ friend in superstar Ed Sheeran as he says thank you for helping him with his career.
Lulic has been rubbing shoulders with his mate Ed after opening on stage for him on tours across the world and latterly on his Latin American Stadium tour.
And it’s his huge fan following which has given Lulic a springboard to work from, releasing a new single of his own.
Now the Chester-le-Street lad excited about the future.
Lulic said: “I wound up this spring playing in 13 stadiums across seven countries in Latin America, from Argentina to Mexico.
“I never expected to stand on stage in front of 53,000 fans chanting my Singer-songwriter Antonio Lulic is “living the dream” is name, but I got to live that dream.
“Now I’ve enough fans across the continent to mount my own tour, and that’s an incredible gift.
“People ask me what he’s [Ed Sheeran] like, and the boring truth is actually exactly what you’ve already heard – he’s a really nice guy.
“He’s generous and sincere, and by that same token, he takes criticism to heart.
“And he looks after his mates. He’s certainly looked after me.” Lulic has never forgotten his roots. In 2015 he returned to the stage he once performed on as a teenager when he played the Artful Dodger in the musical Oliver when at Park View School in Chester-le-Street.
He played in front of teachers and pupils before meeting up with Ed.
Lulic, who grew up in Great Lumley and still has family in the North East, said at the time: “I met Ed Sheeran around 2009 on the London acoustic scene, playing little empty bars. We would end up playing the same circuit at the same gigs.
“I lived with a friend in London and Ed didn’t have a flat of his own.
“He used to do a lot of sofa-surfing and sleeping on pull-out mattresses on friends’ floors.
“He slept at ours a few times and he became a good friend. He asked me to support him on his UK tour and in the US and then again on his South America tour.
“It feels kind of normal supporting him because we have played so many gigs together in London but surreal at the same time,” added the 34-year-old folk-rock singer-songwriter.
False Positives’ is the long-awaited, chilling new single from Lulic, taken from his forthcoming EP ‘Departures’ concerning the police killing of innocent Londoner Jean Charles de Menezes, in the aftermath of the 7/7 London bombings.
Lulic said: “On the 22nd of July, a man being followed by the London Metropolitan Police was shot and killed on a train at Stockwell tube station, on suspicion of being one of the previous day’s bombers.
“In truth, as it would eventually transpire, he was Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian who was mistaken for a terrorist because of the colour of his hair and his skin.
“The song itself started writing itself in my head, listening to news broadcasts and reading reports about the sequence of events that led to this mans death.
“But back in 2005, it was still too raw, and the story wasn’t yet finished being told.
“In 2016, on hearing that Jean Charles’ family had lost their final appeal at the European Court of Human Rights, the song came back to me, and I realised that I could finish it.”